HARBAUGH COACHING TREE SPROUTS THIRD BRANCH IN BALTIMORE

NEW ORLEANS 
The Harbaugh family’s youngest coach is excited, proud and a little sleep deprived.

But he is most definitely not torn.

Jay Harbaugh is the son of Jim and the nephew of John.

Jay is also in the employ of John.

Yes, Jay works as a coaches assistant for the Baltimore Ravens, who on Sunday will play the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.

For those watching, and especially those of us who make a living essentially exploiting human conflict, this dual loyalty represents a fascinating subplot.

Oooh, he works for his uncle. But his father is the coach of the opposing team. The drama!

Deep breath. Eye roll.

“Really, I understand the questions,” Jay said this week. “But frankly, it almost gets to the point where they’re insulting. If someone genuinely asks and wonders where your loyalties lie, I almost want to ask, ‘Have you ever competed in anything? Ever been a part of anything bigger than yourself where you’re pouring yourself out for the cause of a group of men?’ It’s not open for discussion. It doesn’t even cross your mind. It almost strikes me as crazy.”

You don’t get much more Harbaugh than that answer.

Jay Harbaugh is 23 years old and still encumbered by the politeness that no longer burdens his father. Make no mistake, though, the kid is deeply Harbaugh.

Right down to the fact he now makes his living coaching football and plans to do so forever.

“It’s a little off the wall,” he said, so deadpan it took a moment to realize he was joking. “When I told my parents, they couldn’t believe it.”

He has his father’s dry sense of humor, for sure.

Sure, we can (and he can) look back now and see this was his destiny. But he didn’t always know it. Growing up in Coronado, he thought he wanted to be an FBI agent.

Then something occurred to him, as he realized his St. Augustine High classmates were beginning to plan their futures.

“I was thinking, ‘What am I good at? Well, I know a lot of about football. I love it. Why am I not doing that?’ ” Jay said. “That’s when it hit me. I never really thought about it. It’s not like that was a revelation ever.”

Over the course of his final years of high school, Jay also came to realize, through the dual reality of injury and genetics, that he wouldn’t be a player for much longer.

“I was a defensive end,” he said. “I had a decent junior year. But, luckily, I was both undersized and slow. It was really a coveted combination. I got hurt the summer before my senior year. I played one game my senior year. I had knee problems. I went to prep school for a year after that, hurt my knee again there. I said, ‘I want to coach, anyway.’ ”

Of course.

He was raised to do what he’s doing, what he endeavors to do, even if no one meant to rear him that way.

His grandfather, the revered and beloved patriarch, was a college football coach for the better part of four decades. His father always knew he wanted to coach after his NFL career was over, and when Jay was in high school, Jim got his first head coaching job at USD. His uncle, John, has been the head coach of the Ravens since 2008. Another uncle, Tom Crean, is the head basketball coach at Indiana University.

“Certainly, it’s a credit to my parents nothing was ever forced on me,” Jay said. “They gave me tremendous freedom and opportunity to create my own path. Wouldn’t you know, it took me the same path.”

Jay left San Diego for college at Oregon State, making the decision in large part so he could work as an undergraduate assistant to Mike Riley, the former Chargers head coach now in Corvallis. It was at Oregon State that he first was part of a team facing his dad, who spent four seasons as Stanford’s head coach before taking over the 49ers in 2011.

After his last final exam this past spring, he packed his car and drove across the country to Baltimore to work for Uncle John. A coaches’ assistant does everything from running errands to setting up meetings and holding the play board for the scout team during practice.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” Jay said. “Whatever needs to be done. It’s the perfect job to have.”

He chose to work for the Ravens rather than the 49ers for myriad reasons, one of them being that his uncle has been a head coach for longer and Jay had sort of planned to go to Baltimore.

Asked about his son working for the other side, Jim said this on Friday:

“I’m really, really thankful and proud at the same time that Jay is doing what he loves to do,” Jim said. “That is a real blessing, and he’s doing it with the Baltimore Ravens, with a tremendous organization, great coaches around to mentor him and to teach him, especially John being there and hiring him. I hear he’s doing a phenomenal job, which again I’m really proud of.

“This week I haven’t been talking to him or calling him or anything. I’ve sent him a few texts just letting him know how I feel about him and I don’t want to give reason for people to think I’m talking to him.”